Source - Digitalhome
CIPPIC, a group of University Of Ottawa law students who deal with online privacy issues, last week filed a complaint with Canada’s Privacy Commissioner about Bell Canada’s use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to monitor internet subscribers’ online activities without their knowledge or consent.
The group says that large ISPs including Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. may be violating Canada’s privacy legislation, and the group has asked Canada’s Privacy Commissioner to investigate.
CIPPIC, an initialism for Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic filed the complaint last Friday.
CIPPIC says Bell began to apply a sophisticated network filtering technology called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to its own Sympatico retail customers late in October 2007, but only admitted to the practice late in March 2008, after it began inspecting the packets of Bell’s wholesale ISP customers.
CIPPIC says Bell has no contractual relationship with internet users who have signed up through wholesale Internet Service providers therefore Bell has not obtained their consent to the inspection of their traffic.
Bell defends its practices and says that it is respecting the privacy of its retail and wholesale customers. CIPPIC counters that, since Bell won't disclose what it is actually doing, its impossible to say whether Bell is violating Canadians privacy or not.
“Canada has privacy legislation that Bell and other ISPs must follow,” said Philippa Lawson, Executive Director of the Clinic. “We’re asking the Privacy Commissioner to investigate just what Bell’s use of deep packet inspection involves. Canadians have a right to know who is looking over their shoulders, and why.”
There is evidence that other large ISPs such as Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco may be engaging in similar practices, said Lawson. “Our complaint focuses on Bell, but we are asking the Commissioner to investigate all ISPs who engage in traffic-shaping practices.”
CIPPIC FILING TO THE PRIVACY COMMISSIONER
http://www.cippic.ca/uploads/Bell-DP...nt_09May08.pdf
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